The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-11-04
lie QUESTION OF WAGES.
Why n Reduction OF the Tariff Would
B0nefit American WOrking-Men.

-
Benefit American YOrking-M Men.
The organs of a monopoly tariff are
fond of referring to the wages of En-.
glish workmen as a criterion by which
the effect Of a low tariff upon the
wages of worl1ing-men in this country
may be foretold. They scrupulously
avoid all consideration of the fact that
in Germany, where a high protective
tariff obtains, the wages of working
men are lower than in England. Nor
do they take into consideration the
density of population in England as
compared with the population of this
country. If the twenty-five millions
of English people were transferred to
Pennsylvania and the five million OF
Pennsylvanians were in turn trans
ferred to England, it is quite certain
that wages would be greatly reduced
in Pennsylvania and spondingly
increased in England without any
change in the revenue laws of either
England or the United States. Who is
so stupid as not to be able to compre-
bend a truth so clear and indjsputable?
Again: it is a fact not to be disputed
that the American wOrking-man ac-
cOmplishes at least twenty-five per
cent. more in a given time than the
English wOrking-man. American ma
chinery has approached perfection sc
much more nearly than that of foreign
countries that the American manu-
facturer gets out of three days work
of his employees what the English mans
ufacturer can only get in four days. II
is also true that the English skilled
wOrkmen will not and do not, as q
rule, work on Saturdays, and being
paid by the week they receive for five
days work what the American work
ing-man gets for six days. So it ap.
pears that the American working-man,
aided by superior machinery, gives his
employer for a weeks wages a result
which requires the English manufact'
urer to pay his employee for eight days
and three-quarters of a day. Certainly
wages of American working men
should and must be, under these cir
cumstances, much higher than those
received by English working-men, but
in proportion to the results accom-
plished by the working-men of England
and the United States respectively
those of the former are far better paid
than those of the latter.
1t will be asked: How comes it, then,
that English manufacturers can under
sell American manufacturers in our
own markets? The answer is that in
those lines of manufacture in which the
English producer undersells his Amer
lean competitor the cost of production
to the latter is SO greatly enhanced by
the high tariff duties on raw materials
that he is unable to compete, and at
times, when there is a great demand
for a given product, as is now the case
with iron, prices advance so that the
foreign manufacturer can make profit
by selling lower than the prices asked
by his American competitor. No
country under the sun but the United
States puts tariff on raw materials
used in its industries. Hence, not
withstanding the fact that labor in this
country now accomplishes more for
less wages than the labor of England,
the American manufacturer loses the
home market partially and the mar
kets of other countries entirely because
of the stupidest and most barbarOus
tariff laws that ever retarded the in
dustrial progress of any nation on the
face of the earth. HUTTt5dttrg Patriot.